


The Day of the Mistake - Sacrifice

by AwatereJones



Series: EMP [7]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Gift Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29650437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwatereJones/pseuds/AwatereJones
Summary: The Day of the Mistake - Sacrifice: EMP Verse by FranArianThis is a gift for Awatere11"s upcoming Birthday. A glimpse of unwitnessed events in her EMP Verse... What was sacrificed when Ianto reinforced their haven's defenses? What secrets does the Veil hide? I own nothing - doubly so, as this is her AU world. Hope you enjoy it, sweetie. xxxxFranArian had ben trying to create an account here but failing so asked if I can post this into mine instead so those of you reading this verse can share in the gift she wrote for me.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Series: EMP [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1257476
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	The Day of the Mistake - Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AwatereJones](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwatereJones/gifts).



The Day of the Mistake: Sacrifice – EMP Verse Interlude

Ianto, Orinoco, and a quickly gathered group of Chimeron mature enough to lend energy to strengthening the bubble, all stood in the grove of towering Oak and Weeping Willow that guarded the source of the spring. Ianto left his shoes and socks on a stone, then moved to the centre of the ring his people created around him, digging his bare toes into the damp grass.

He relaxed, forcing the hurt and despair from his altercation with Jack to the very back of his mind. With several cleansing breaths, Ianto mentally reached out to those around him and braced, drawing what power he was willing to take from them. Then he closed his eyes and released that power as well as his own lifeforce, his body collapsing as he abandoned it and sought to weave a stronger and larger shield around all he held dear.

The work was draining but he pushed on, sacrificing more and more of himself to bolster their only true protection. Finally, it was done and he sought to return to his body, only to discover himself alone in the mist of the Veil. He'd given too much…

"Oh, Jack… I'm sorry," Ianto whispered sadly, closing his eyes in exhaustion as grief welled in his soul. "I didn't mean to leave you, I just wanted us all safe. But maybe this is for the best. I love you so damned much, but how can we Bond if you still don't trust me? How can I believe you really love me back when it's so easy for you to overlook and hurt me? Still, I wish I'd been able to say goodbye…"

Ianto sighed and sank down to sit in the mist, his head in his hands. He tried one last time to reach for his body, but it only caused a flare of unbearable pain and he just didn't have the strength.

Tears slid unnoticed down his cheeks as he tried to accept his fate, the chill of the Veil seeping into his spirit form. Then there was sudden warmth, a puffing of hot moist air against his cheek.

Ianto opened his eyes to find a black and white dog standing beside him in the mist, and he recognised it as the Shetland collie he'd greeted at the Lake only two days ago. Once bedraggled and sad, the dog's coat was now glossy, her eyes bright and a happy cant to her tipped over ears. She was also not alone, as a smaller female dog of the same breed stood at her shoulder, also black and white but with sharply upright ears like a fox.

"Hello, little ones," Ianto breathed, reaching out to gently rub an ear of each of the Shelties with a shaking hand. "I'm glad you found each other in the place of waiting. But why are you here instead of waiting for your mistress?"

"Because I'm here," a quiet, barely accented voice murmured from nearby.

Ianto looked up to find a small woman with dark, greying hair and faded blue eyes standing before him in the mist. She smiled shyly and looked down as the two dogs came wagging over to her.

"My sweet little children-in-fur," she sighed, crouching down to hug both of the wriggling canines and kiss each one on the head, before standing up with a silver toned Ocicat in her arms. "This is Tiie, my little spotted-butted boy, second child and loving brother to both my girls in their time."

The cat gave a creaking meow and purred as he snuggled into the woman's arms.

"This is my first child, Shelly-Draven, my darling wee Crow," the woman chuckled, the smaller dog spinning in a circle and dancing from foot to foot when her name was given. "And this is Shaiya, my brave little Dragon, who helped heal my soul when I lost Shelly to cancer."

The larger Sheltie with the tipped ears wagged vigorously and made a happy huffing sound, looking up at her mistress with adoring eyes.

"She was my last baby," the petite woman lamented. "Stolen from me too soon by a failing heart. But at least she was safe when the world went to hell."

"They are beautiful little souls," Ianto observed wearily, even as he smiled to see how happy the animals were to be reunited with their human mother. "And you seem incredibly calm about your situation, compared to others who've passed the Veil in recent days."

"I came looking for my children-in-fur," the woman nodded, settling the cat at her feet once more. "I got my older sisters tucked away where the machines can't find them, a total technology dead-zone a dear friend from New Zealand had originated a few years back and managed to get similar spaces set up all over the world. She's brilliant, and I'm pretty sure she knew what was coming somehow, did what she could to help prepare for it using old fashioned letters and a small group of emerging telepaths… clever Kiwi. Her little farm where she lives and the other secure sites that she helped create have saved a lot of lives… Humanity owes her so much and will likely never even know who she is. She'd be worth contacting if you can.

"Anyhow, I got my sibs hidden, then went back for our Dad. He was already gone though, along with his entire neighbourhood… nothing but ash. And the machines were too close for me to go back to the safe haven, so I chose to come looking for my babies on my own terms, protect my sisters one last time. I don't think the machines were very happy with the method of my departure. Seems they don't much like explosions that trigger EMP waves… oops."

She shrugged and gave him a warm but nervous smile, obviously not used to much social interaction when alive.

"That was very brave," Ianto stated, trying to catch her gaze. "And I'm sure your little ones here are happy to be with you again. But why are you still in the Veil? You've found your babies, why haven't you moved on with them?"

"The Lady asked me to wait," the woman explained, finally making eye contact. "Asked me to help Her child. I'm here to kiss my children-in-fur, hold them one more time, which I have. Now I'm to help you get home."

"What?" Ianto gaped and struggled to his feet, not believing what he was hearing. "You can't! My downfall was my own doing, I knew the risks. You've got another life to live with your furred children now. How can you think of giving that up when they've waited for you so patiently? Please don't abandon them for my sake, I'm not worth it."

"I'll still be with them," his apparent saviour reassured, tipping her head back slightly to look up at him where he stood swaying with fatigue so she could maintain eye contact. "I'm only sacrificing the energy gifted by the Lady of the Lake to create a new body beyond the Veil, the Time that form was entitled to. Instead, I will share Shaiya's, as she is the most eager to allow me space.

"And you, sir, are worth my second life and so much more. You are truly, desperately needed in the world of the living. I would just be another drifter with little to offer of worth. This way I can help you, and still be with my children-in-fur. I'm perfectly happy to do this for you… for the world. And my furry babies here will have it no other way. They know I love them more than anyone or anything else, and that this altered reunion is the right thing to do."

"I don't even know your name," Ianto whispered, shocked and guiltily grateful to this diminutive woman he'd only just met.

"I'm nobody, Ianto Icarus Jones, nobody at all," she smiled with another shrug. "Just here to help. Only… promise me you'll look after my babies. I may be part of Shaiya after this, but they'll still need gentle hands and kind words to offer them comfort when they ask for it. And we do all find your voice most soothing."

"I promise," Ianto nodded, feeling tears on his cheeks once more as the animals in question gathered at his feet like toddlers waiting for a story.

This total stranger was giving up her second chance at life to save him from his own mistake. If caring for her pets was all she asked in return, how could he not?

"Diolch," the woman smiled, the word drawing a slight Welsh accent to the surface of what could have been taken for some region from America before, even as she stepped into his personal space. "Let's get you back to your Cariad, so he can pull his head out of his arse and prove he's worthy of you."

"I… don't know if he actually thinks I'm worthy of him," Ianto breathed, still feeling the ache of the confrontation at the Lake. "I know I've done things he feels betrayed by, things he never let me fully explain. And I thought we'd worked past it all, that he truly does love me and wants a permanent Bond. But it keeps coming up between us… he still thinks I'm using him, when I never have nor ever will. I'm not sure how much longer I can face that, have the man I love make me feel as unworthy as I always did as a child. I love him, only him, my One… and I want him so much that it hurts, but sometimes I feel like he doesn't want me the same way and definitely doesn't want all my baggage when he has so much of his own."

Ianto's voice broke, and he swallowed hard to hold back the sob tightening his throat even as more tears spilled from his red-rimmed eyes. He was just so damned tired… spiritually depleted, physically drained, mentally fatigued, and emotionally shattered. For the most part, he wanted desperately to take what this well-meaning stranger was offering and get back to the land of the living. But a small part of him was crying out that he'd done more than enough for an ungrateful world and mercurial mate, that he should protect himself for once and just stay within the Veil he'd escaped from so many times in the past.

"You know the Lady of the Lake is quite the chatter-box sometimes," the woman half smiled, drawing Ianto's attention to her once more. "She believes you and the Captain are destined to be together, but thinks he really needs a few lessons in the proper care and feeding of one of Her children before you Bond. She isn't best pleased that he can so easily make you feel less than you truly are, doesn't like his hot-and-cold treatment of you, and is offended on your behalf that he still holds Lisa against you in his deepest heart… especially because he's never listened to the truth about what happened with her."

"I did love her, but we both knew she couldn't be saved," Ianto nodded sadly, his shoulders drooping in pain-laced exhaustion. "We were trying to find a way to hack the Cyber implants or at least destroy them. Figure out what could penetrate the armour other than a pulse cannon, devise weapons to combat them effectively, find something that would shut them down for good. That's where the little EMP grenades came from. Then Tanizaki claimed to have a way to organically short out all Cyberman circuitry, so I brought him to the Hub. But it was a lie… he just wanted access to Lisa to steal the Cyber components for his own use and ended up engaging all the implants instead of shutting them down.

"I fought for Lisa after that, because I'd promised to let her go as painlessly as possible. I kept trying to explain that I needed to get her down in the Faraday room across from where the Conversion Unit had been, so I could use one of the EMP grenades without damaging the Hub, but they wouldn't listen. Jack was convinced I was just blinded by love and had been using him, using all of them without any concern for their safety or that of the world. Even now he gets angry if I try to talk about that time, says he forgave me and I shouldn't keep bringing it up."

"He'll know the right of it one day soon," the diminutive woman before him stated firmly, leaning down to caress the ears of each of her pets before meeting his weary gaze once more. "Captain Jack Harkness is going hurt you one last time with his selfish wilfulness and feel the echo of regret over it for ages to come as a reminder of all that he could have lost. Because before he will be allowed to fully Bond with you, the Lady will call him out by his birth name for his treatment of you and open his eyes to the full truth about Lisa, you, and this place. And I don't think she's going to be particularly gentle about it. But you will have your Cariad and he will have you, with no more mistrust between you. Let the knowledge of that certainty be a comfort in days to come, yeah? Now… Time to go."

Before Ianto could respond to any of her assertions, the small nameless woman with greying hair moved to embrace him, her ear pressed over his heart. Searing heat bloomed at that point of contact and spread rapidly through out his body, and the mist of the Veil flared brilliant gold around them. Ianto cried out in pain and closed his eyes against the increasingly bright light, felt the small body in his arms slowly filter away like sand in the tide.

Ianto gasped, desperate to draw air into his lungs as he writhed in agony, his eyes glowing with swirling gold light as they snapped open, and he found himself lying on the grass in the grove near the spring. Orinoco and the others knelt around him with tears in their eyes, their expressions rapidly changing from devastation to joy. He was back…

"We thought we'd lost you…" Orin wept, leaning down to press his head to Ianto's chest.

"Nearly…" Ianto breathed, his voice barely audible and his throat raw, the swirling gold fading from his eyes to show their normal stormy blue-grey once more. "So tired…"

The group stirred themselves and quickly slid their Prince's shoes back on and helped him to his feet, Orinoco and one of the others having to support him bodily as they started the slow trek back to the village.

As they moved, Ianto caught a flash of black and white from the corner of his eye and turned his head to see what it was. Beneath the Old Father Oak, sat two Shetland collies and a beautifully marked silver cat. The larger of the two dogs, Shaiya, stood and met his unsteady gaze, her dark eyes briefly changing to a faded blue.

Rest, the unnamed woman's voice whispered in his mind. We'll be along later.

Thank you, Ianto returned in kind. I won't forget your sacrifice. Or your friend from New Zealand who's out there trying to save the world.

The Sheltie nodded, then her eyes shifted back to normal and all three animals trotted off into the trees, leaving Ianto and his people to make their way home to heal.

27/12/2020 For Jo's Birthday Rä hänau ki a koe


End file.
